40 m² that live like 60: the method
In short
A practical guide to small apartment layout in Switzerland: zoning without walls, choosing multifunction and built-in furniture, using full height and working with light. With cost benchmarks for bespoke joinery and wet-room renovation, plus interior-architect fees.
A 32 m² studio in Geneva can feel cramped or perfectly fluid. The difference rarely comes down to floor area: it comes down to how the uses are distributed, how light crosses the space, and how many pieces of furniture genuinely do two things at once.
Most small Swiss flats aren't short of space, they're short of organisation. People pile in furniture designed for large rooms, block a window, cut a sightline, and the volume looks half its real size. Here is a space-planning method to reclaim square metres that are already there.
Start from the uses, not the furniture
Before choosing a sofa or a wardrobe, list what the room has to hold: sleeping, cooking, eating, hosting, working, storing. In a two-room flat several of these functions overlap in the same spot at different times. The goal isn't to give each one a wall, but to let them coexist without getting in each other's way.
Draw the plan to scale, even by hand, and place the circulation first: a comfortable passage is 80 to 90 cm, an acceptable minimum 60 cm. What remains once those invisible corridors are guaranteed is the genuinely furnishable area. Many projects fail because people furnish first and think about moving through the space afterwards.
Zone without partitioning
Adding walls in a small apartment is almost always a mistake: you gain a separation but lose light, perspective and floor area. Separate zones with furniture, flooring, light and colour rather than with masonry.
- A low unit or an open bookcase to mark the day/night boundary without cutting the view.
- A rug that defines the seating corner and sets it apart from the circulation zone.
- A low pendant over the table to anchor the dining corner.
- A slight change of tone or flooring to signal a work corner.
Small apartment layout: the moves that actually add m²
Some interventions return measurable square metres, others are mostly decoration. These are the ones that genuinely affect usable floor area.
The 40 cm above a standard wardrobe is wasted area. Full-height joinery recovers a whole storage volume without taking any extra floor space.
A hinged door sterilises around 1 m² of unusable floor. Sliding or pocket doors free that swing for a piece of furniture or a passage.
Corners, sloped ceilings, hallway setbacks: these nooks can't be filled with off-the-shelf furniture but work perfectly as bespoke storage or seating.
A sofa or bed that lets the floor show through feels lighter and makes the room read as larger.
A wall entirely devoted to storage frees the other surfaces and calms the room, instead of scattering small units everywhere.
Multifunction and built-in furniture
In a small home, every piece of furniture should justify its footprint with at least two uses. The fold-away bed returns the floor area of a bedroom to the living space during the day. The storage banquette offers seating, a spare bed and a large volume of storage under the seat. The platform bed turns its drawers into a full wardrobe.
Built-in beats freestanding: joinery drawn for the spot follows the room's geometry to the centimetre, whereas an off-the-shelf unit always leaves dead voids at the sides and on top. It costs more up front, but it is what genuinely reclaims square metres.
In a small apartment you don't decorate a surface, you choreograph uses over time. The piece that does only one thing costs too much space.
Full-height storage, the highest-return item
If a single item should concentrate the budget, it's storage. A full-height wardrobe, floor to ceiling, across a whole wall, absorbs what normally clutters the floor and surfaces. Flush, handle-free fronts in the wall colour blend into the surface and visually disappear instead of weighing the room down.
Unsure how to lay out your studio or two-room flat? A costed layout plan removes the uncertainty before you buy a single piece of furniture. Compare architects in your canton
Light, sightlines and colour
Perceived size depends first on light and lines of sight. Keep the areas in front of windows clear, preserve a through diagonal from the entrance, and avoid cutting the eye off halfway across the room with a tall unit.
- A large mirror facing or perpendicular to the window doubles the daylight and extends the perspective.
- A light, uniform tone on walls and floor erases the boundaries between surfaces and pushes the walls back visually.
- Curtains hung flush to the ceiling and running wider than the window make it look larger and the room taller.
- Lighting on several low points, rather than one central ceiling fixture, creates zones and depth.
Kitchen and bathroom: the wet rooms
These are the most expensive and most constrained square metres. In the kitchen, a straight or L-shaped run taken to full height, with tall units up to the ceiling, stores more than a scattered layout. A pull-out worktop or a fold-down shelf serves as a table without taking permanent space. In the bathroom, a walk-in shower frees the volume a tub locks up, a wall-hung unit clears the floor, and a heated towel rail replaces the radiator to reclaim a stretch of wall.
- Follows the room to the centimetre, no dead voids.
- Reclaims corners, height and recesses otherwise unusable.
- Higher up-front cost, plus design and installation time.
- Stays with the home and raises its value.
- Cheaper and available immediately.
- Leaves dead voids at the sides and on top.
- Rarely suited to small, irregular floor plans.
- Movable, but reclaims few usable square metres.
What it costs
Bespoke costs more than standard, but it is what reclaims square metres. Indicative ranges for Switzerland, to be refined by finish; budget a reserve of 10 to 20% for the unexpected.
Cost benchmarks for a small apartment (Switzerland)
An interior architect typically charges 15 to 22% of the works, or 120 to 300 CHF per hour for a one-off assignment. SIA fee scales have been non-binding since 2020: compare offers and define the scope precisely. On a small floor plan, a well-run layout study often prevents pointless purchases that exceed the cost of the study itself.
Make your small apartment live like a large one
AC Design plans the layout of studios and small apartments across Switzerland: layout plan, bespoke furniture and coordination of the works. Request a first appointment.
Describe my projectA well-thought-out small apartment is not second-rate housing: it's a space where every square metre works. The area constraint forces clear decisions, and those decisions often produce more coherent, more pleasant interiors than many poorly used large rooms.
FAQ
Start by distributing the uses on a scale plan, guarantee the circulation, then consolidate storage on one full-height wall. Favour multifunction furniture (fold-away bed, storage banquette) and built-in bespoke joinery that reclaims corners and height. These moves, more than choosing small furniture, are what make square metres usable.
Rarely. In a small home a partition costs light, perspective and floor area. It's better to zone with furniture, a low unit, a rug, lighting or a slight colour contrast, which distinguishes the functions without closing off the volume.
Often yes. Bespoke costs more than standard, but it follows the room to the centimetre and uses the corners, height and recesses an off-the-shelf unit leaves empty. That is precisely what reclaims square metres in a small, irregular floor plan.
Light, uniform tones on walls and floor erase the boundaries between surfaces and push the walls back visually. A large mirror near a window doubles the light, and curtains hung flush to the ceiling make the room look taller.
Budget roughly 900 to 2500 CHF per linear metre for a full-height wardrobe, 2000 to 6000 CHF for a fold-away bed installed, and 8000 to 24000 CHF to renovate a small kitchen or bathroom. An interior architect charges 15 to 22% of the works or 120 to 300 CHF per hour; keep a reserve of 10 to 20%.